Transitions | Organization and text structure | Achievable Praxis Core: Reading (5713)

Texts can be organized in a wide variety of ways. Your ability to recognize text structures will be tested both directly and indirectly on the test.

Tracking transitional words and phrases in a passage is one of the best ways to determine its structure because they give you a sense of the direction the passage will take. For example, the “old idea/new idea” structure requires a transition from the old idea to the new one in an identifiable structure: old idea, transition, new idea. The new idea is what the passage is mainly about.

Similarly, if a passage says there will be three reasons, make sure you find all three. Items in a list will often be introduced with one of the following transition words:

First
Second
Third
Next
Also
Finally
Lastly

Best practices for structure questions

Locate the transition word or words.
Determine the relationship between what comes before the transition and what comes after it.
Try to predict the answer.
Pick the answer choice that best matches your answer.

There are three main categories of transitions: continuers, contradictors, and cause-and-effect words.

Continuers

Continuers are words or phrases that add new information along the same lines of what’s already been said. They can be grouped into five subcategories: adding information, introducing an example, clarifying or defining, emphasizing, and sequencing.

Adding information

Additionally, in addition
Also
And
Likewise
Moreover
Similarly

Introducing an example

For example
For instance
Specifically

Clarifying or defining

Essentially
In other words
Put another way
That is

Emphasizing

Indeed
In fact

Chronological sequence

First
After
Second
Last
Third
Finally
Before
Later

Contradictors

Contradictors indicate that what comes after the transition will disagree with what’s come before it. Many contradictory transitions can also be used to introduce a new idea—because the new idea contradicts the old one.

Alternately	Although/though	But	Conversely	Despite
Even so	However	In any case	In contrast	Instead
Meanwhile	Nevertheless	Nonetheless	On the contrary	On the other hand
Rather	Regardless	Still	Whereas	While
Yet

Cause and effect

When authors want to establish causality—when one event causes another–they use a number of words that help readers see that connection:

Because
As a result
For this reason
Consequently
Thus
Therefore
Then
Due to

Let’s see how this works in a passage:

This passage is from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, found at Project Gutenberg.

The reader may rest satisfied that Tom’s and Huck’s windfall made a mighty stir in the poor little village of St. Petersburg. So vast a sum, all in actual cash, seemed next to incredible. It was talked about, gloated over, glorified, until the reason of many of the citizens tottered under the strain of the unhealthy excitement. Every “haunted” house in St. Petersburg and the neighboring villages was dissected, plank by plank, and its foundations dug up and ransacked for hidden treasure—and not by boys, but men—pretty grave, unromantic men, too, some of them. Wherever Tom and Huck appeared they were courted, admired, stared at. The boys were not able to remember that their remarks had possessed weight before; but now their sayings were treasured and repeated; everything they did seemed somehow to be regarded as remarkable; they had evidently lost the power of doing and saying commonplace things; moreover, their past history was raked up and discovered to bear marks of conspicuous originality. The village paper published biographical sketches of the boys.

How is the passage organized?
a. Cause-and-effect
b. Chronologically
c. Compare and contrast
d. Persuasive
e. Question and answer

(spoiler)

Cause-and-effect is the correct answer because the passage states that Tom and Huck’s “windfall” caused everyone in town to think more highly of the boys.

Chronologically is incorrect because although the “windfall” happens before the townspeople revise their opinion of Tom and Huck, the connection between the two events is not fully expressed.

Compare and contrast is incorrect, although it might look tempting. The relationship between the town and the boys may have changed, but it isn’t being compared to anything else.

Persuasive is incorrect because the paragraph isn’t trying to persuade or convince.

Question and answer is incorrect because no question is posed in the passage.